Arc VII Lore Drafting

Renekton spent thousands of years in a dark and mysterious a Shuriman tomb, tormented by Xerath. Upon being released, he killed Xerath and felt better decided to murder Nasus, and now wanders Valoran on a quest for vengeance really just wants a vacation in Aeaea. The two brothers meet in battle, and a Void rift opens they clash as Azir looks on. They quote extensively from Mega Man rock operas fight to a standstill, until their use of dangerous magic opens a Void rift Renekton maxes out his fury meter and does that spinny-slashy thing. His ferocious assault opens a Void rift poisons Nasus with dark and mysterious well-understood curse-magic. Azir hides in a vault and locks it, but Renekton comes forward with his giant slashy thing. THE ANCIENT WEAPON IS A KEY! Actually, wait, maybe Renekton didn’t win the fight?

Okay. Round two.

Renekton tells Nasus to lock him up. Nasus does so. Shurima still got blown up, which is very sad for many people. Some of them are so angry that their rage and thirst for vengeance opens a Void Rift. Renekton emerges from the tomb because boomerangs are keys now. He’s so angry that he becomes the first Champion with AD ratios on abilities, because AD means both “Attack Damage” and “also sometimes Ability Damage”, as Renekton Bot is fond of saying. Xerath isn’t there, because Plot. Renekton attacks Azir and Nasus, that evil betrayer, stops him. So then Renekton goes and gets so angry that he’s not angry anymore. wait what Now he wanders Valoran on a quest for vengea—ARGH WHY DO I KEEP COMING BACK TO THAT IT’S LIKE SOME KIND OF INEXORABLE VORTEX OF BAD WRITING.

This is hard. Help me out! I’m thinking of introducing a magical MacGuffin, or maybe having a Void rift open. Maybe we can just hack something together and fill in the gaps with a thirst for vengeance? Key topics include:

Keys

Ancient weapons

Whether these two previous categories can be distinguished

Making Renekton a real character who has some reason to hate Nasus, and somewhere to go other than “kill Nasus”

Giving Sivir something to do

Figuring out, at last, what happened with those Rune Wars

Explaining why the original Rune Wars super-factions could command such world-breaking power and yet have names as dorky as “the Magelords” and “the Protectorate”

Whether Riot Games understands what a “protectorate” is

Shurima’s ancient history and fall

Whether Lissandra knows the difference between “millennia” and “centuries”

Whether Riot Games understands the human concept of time

What Nefara’s doing

The internal politics of Noxus

Why Cassi stabbed Sivir, other than to just be a jerk

Whether Sivir made fun of Cassiopeia when she told her to try to use her boomerang as a key

(The answer to that previous question is “yes”)

What Piltover’s New Model Army looks like

When Sion killed Jarvan

Just how sad Amumu really is

Wait, I just realized the pun on “key topics”

That’s hilarious

Sometimes I’m really slow to pick up on puns

Hey, guys, have I told you that I think the “descent into the tomb” video is really stupid?

(“YES YOU HAVE, MANY TIMES”)

Yeeesh, okay, okay, sorry

Where was I

Figuring out Xerath

Figuring out basically every Shuriman Champion

Working out what Ascension actually means

Deciding whether Cait can walk across sand wearing heels

(She can!)

Developing the League’s laws and history

…and more!

The real decision to be made here is where exactly to link this clip. There are so many options. If one of your favorite Champions is poised to take the spotlight this arc, come pour your heart out about them and tell me what to do with them.

Champions I got good community suggestions for: Viktor

Result: I think people actually liked his portrayal, and I was able to do more with him than just have him be a goofy Saturday morning cartoon villain shaking his fist at Jayce

Champions I did not get good community suggestions for: Malzahar

Result: For a very long time, I basically made Malzahar look like a Saturday morning cartoon villain who kept failing and cursing those meddling kids and their little dog, too

Basically, understand that my default is to make everyone a Saturday morning cartoon villain

Same goes for settings, or other bits of lore. Speaking of, we’ve got tons of room to work here. Usually, we try to play it pretty close to the chest, because we never know when Riot will swoop in and smack down some new lore, and we want to avoid overcommitting. But there are some important exceptions in this brave post-Great Retcon world.

Anything involving the League: As far as I’m concerned, we’ve already broken with Riot on this, and this is now our lore-space.

Anything involving Summoners: Same deal. I think they’re going to release a new lore-concept with the name “Summoners” in the near-ish future, but they’re obviously not going to describe Summoners of the League with that concept.

The Rune Wars: Will Riot talk about the Rune Wars? Maybe. Maybe not. If they do, will they be recognizable or compatible with our League-having universe? Maybe, maybe not.

Now’s your chance to come in and help define these massive blocks of Runeterra’s history. What I’m saying is, come comment on the Arc VII Lore Outline and pitch some ideas, or I’ll just convert it all into a bunch of Stargate references. More than it already is, I mean. Oooooooh, how about making some Bellum Civile references? It’s this Silver Age Latin epic about the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. Written by Lucan. There’s this part where an army is marching through the desert, and a succession of types of dangerous snakes attack them. One makes people melt, and another one is like a javelin that bursts through people’s heads. (It becomes increasingly unclear whether or not Lucan is being sarcastic.) And so, wait, this is good, for that latter javelin-snake one, he makes this pun about “time flies” (tempus fugit) and remarks about how the snake javelins into this dude’s head and flies out through his temples (trans tempora). Time flies, just like a javelin-snake! That’s comedy gold. Latin puns about flying snakes. …what I’m trying to impress upon you is that you really don’t want me doing this all myself.

6 comments on “Arc VII Lore Drafting”

For Malzahar, I’d suggest you really try to play up his insanity, but in a different way. Have him be like the Joker in the Dark Knight movies, he’s clever, cunning, and wants chaos. Especially make him clever, I mean, his lore has a whole portion about how he can see the future!!! He’s the greatest prophet the world has ever seen, make him that mastermind that everything goes right for, in a slow but steady way.

This actually opens up a great place to put Zilean too. How do you deal with someone who always knows exactly what you’re going to do? Have them fight a Time Traveler! During the whole thing, Zilean should occasionally disappear, off to fight Malzahar. The beauty of this too is that in a big fight, success could be represented as if Zilean shows up in the right place at the right time. Remember, Zilean’s absent minded with no concept of past or present, he might completely show up somewhere he doesn’t need to be.

So have a rivalry between a character with a perfect vision of the future, and one who can travel through it, changing it from that perfect vision Malz might have seen. Play up a rivalry between them, but make sure Malzahar comes out as cunning, while Zilean’s plans can’t be understood by anyone but him (Remember, he sees past present and future as the same much of the time, it’s hard to understand him, even if he’s perfectly sane). This also means Zilean can be fighting for Runeterra first, and whatever faction he ends up in second, leading to some interesting politics.

I like Renekton as completely insane like before the rework, but for more complex reasons. He underwent thousands of years of mental and physical torture until the only things he remembered was Nasus. His life is filled with thoughts of Nasus and an unrelenting pain. Therefore, when the tomb was opened he went after the only thing he remembered from his previous life. Bam! Then we cut to his old lore which actually made him an interesting bestial creature. Locked up by the League and out to kill the only remaining links to his past. Loyal to Shurima more out of an instinctive loyalty than any complex plan to take it over.

I have an idea to help flesh out Renekton. How about when Xerath had Nasus and Renekton get separated from Azir, it was Nasus who fell for the ploy, and Renekton who suggested they stick to their post? Nasus convinced Renekton to go do the thing, and as a result Shurima was destroyed. Now Renekton is haunted by the wailing angry ghosts of dead Shurimans who drive him MAD. He is angry at Nasus for failing him, and for failing Shurima. Those Shurimans want people killed, and while Renekton is a tough cookie, thousands of years of torment can only do so much for someone. This can also let us give him temporary moments of sanity/clarity and also explains why he might fight for Shurimans while still being furious at Nasus.

Oh, I missed the part about Azir luring them away. I like that idea, as part of the list of “reasons why Renekton hates Nasus”. If we go with the “Renekton reforged” idea, this would add further intensity to his envy-hate of Nasus: though Renekton was the better Guardian, Nasus’ error cost him his true calling.